How Do Money, Sex, and Power Expose the Real Me?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - This week, John Piper's new book launched.

00:00:07.080 | It's titled Living in the Light, Money, Sex, and Power.

00:00:10.160 | It's a nice little hardcover available now on Amazon

00:00:12.960 | and downloadable free of charge at DesiringGod.org.

00:00:16.620 | Pastor John, one thing that stands out in the book

00:00:18.760 | and you make it on this podcast all the time

00:00:21.240 | is that God's commands against the sinful use

00:00:23.560 | of money, sex, and power are not merely

00:00:25.700 | just bare prohibitions.

00:00:27.080 | They are really diagnostic tests of our own hearts.

00:00:31.860 | In the book, you write this, quote,

00:00:33.480 | "Power, money, and sex are all God-given means

00:00:36.560 | "of showing what you value," end quote.

00:00:40.380 | These are phenomena that diagnose

00:00:42.940 | the vibrancy of our hearts.

00:00:44.040 | Explain this, and if you're right,

00:00:45.920 | then it has pretty serious implications

00:00:47.720 | for Christians who attempt to see how much sin

00:00:51.420 | they can get away with in their lives.

00:00:53.160 | Unpack this reality for us.

00:00:54.820 | - Right, yes, that is what I say in the book

00:00:59.160 | and what I try to unpack.

00:01:00.940 | Money, sex, and power are God-given ways

00:01:05.840 | of displaying God's supreme worth in our lives.

00:01:11.680 | Or they can display the supreme worth

00:01:17.360 | of something other than God

00:01:19.300 | and prove that we are idolaters.

00:01:22.200 | The way you think and feel and act

00:01:25.240 | about money and sex and power

00:01:27.460 | puts your heart's treasure on display,

00:01:32.460 | either God or something he made.

00:01:36.740 | And one of the reasons for this

00:01:39.500 | is simply what money and sex and power are.

00:01:43.980 | So this is where definitions work, again, so important.

00:01:47.220 | Let me give you three definitions,

00:01:49.020 | one for each of them, and you'll see immediately

00:01:52.020 | why it is, given the definition,

00:01:55.300 | that they are God-given means of putting on display

00:01:59.540 | the supremacy of what we value.

00:02:01.260 | So what is power?

00:02:02.740 | Power is the capacity to pursue what you value.

00:02:07.740 | Money, what is that?

00:02:11.060 | Money is a cultural symbol.

00:02:13.580 | This green piece of paper, this metal coin,

00:02:16.020 | money is a cultural symbol that can be exchanged

00:02:21.420 | in pursuit of what you value.

00:02:23.700 | And what is sex?

00:02:26.260 | Sex is one of those values,

00:02:29.300 | one of those pleasures that people really value.

00:02:34.300 | So power and money and sex are all God-given ways,

00:02:39.900 | God-given means of showing what we value.

00:02:45.140 | They are, like all other created reality in the universe,

00:02:49.700 | given by God as means of worship.

00:02:53.660 | Everybody should think that way.

00:02:54.660 | My money is a means of worship,

00:02:56.100 | my power is a means of worship,

00:02:57.380 | my sex is a means of worship.

00:03:00.460 | That is a means of magnifying

00:03:04.500 | what is of supreme worth to us.

00:03:07.740 | That's what power is for and money is for and sex is for,

00:03:10.620 | to demonstrate, magnify what is of supreme worth to us.

00:03:15.620 | All your power, all your money, all your sexuality,

00:03:19.660 | are God's gifts for putting on display His supreme worth.

00:03:24.660 | Now, how do we do that?

00:03:27.500 | There are two ways that we do it,

00:03:28.980 | at least two ways that we make money, sex, and power

00:03:32.540 | become a display of God's truth and beauty and worth.

00:03:36.700 | One is by preferring God's truth and beauty and worth

00:03:41.700 | over sinful uses of money, sex, and power.

00:03:48.060 | So we prefer God, and when you prefer something,

00:03:51.020 | you show that it's preferable,

00:03:53.020 | it's more beautiful, more true, more glorious.

00:03:57.140 | And the second way, we pursue God's truth and beauty

00:04:01.740 | and worth in the gift of money, sex, and power,

00:04:06.300 | in the righteous use of money, sex, and power.

00:04:10.980 | In other words, one way of magnifying Christ

00:04:14.460 | with money, sex, and power is how we deal with the dangers,

00:04:18.740 | that was number one, and the other one is

00:04:21.020 | how we deal with their potentials, that's number two.

00:04:25.100 | Just a word about each of those, the dangers to be avoided.

00:04:29.660 | If sexual desires try to drag us

00:04:34.260 | into a soul-destroying direction,

00:04:37.820 | a soul-destroying misuse of our sexuality,

00:04:41.360 | we show the superior worth of Christ

00:04:44.940 | by preferring His way to that way.

00:04:48.540 | God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied

00:04:53.540 | in Him rather than in sexual sin.

00:04:57.460 | That's the way we magnify His worth,

00:04:59.980 | by preferring Him and His way over the abuses of sex.

00:05:04.660 | Or take money, if the love of money

00:05:07.940 | and the material things that money can buy,

00:05:12.480 | or the privileges it can attain,

00:05:15.140 | lure us into sinful covetousness,

00:05:19.040 | then we show the superior worth and beauty of God

00:05:24.040 | by putting that covetousness to death

00:05:28.040 | with the superior pleasures of the promises of God.

00:05:32.340 | That's the way Hebrews 13, five and six argue.

00:05:36.000 | You don't need to love money.

00:05:37.760 | I have said I'll be with you, I'll never forsake you.

00:05:40.440 | It's exactly the way the Bible thinks.

00:05:43.000 | And thirdly, power.

00:05:45.060 | If the lure of power makes us feel desirous

00:05:50.480 | of exalting ourselves and showing our superiority

00:05:54.480 | and putting other people down,

00:05:56.320 | the truth and beauty and worth of God are displayed

00:06:00.920 | if we prefer the humility of Christ

00:06:05.200 | over that self-exaltation and the arrogance

00:06:08.640 | that the world is constantly throwing at us is admirable.

00:06:12.640 | So that's the way we display the superior worth of God

00:06:17.020 | above the pleasures of money, sex, and power.

00:06:19.640 | We prefer God, we prefer God and His fellowship

00:06:24.520 | and His way over any of those sinful pleasures

00:06:28.280 | that money, sex, and power might offer.

00:06:30.240 | And the other way, and I hope this would be

00:06:32.720 | an unexpected helpful contribution that the book makes,

00:06:37.720 | a little different maybe than some other approaches.

00:06:40.320 | The other way is that we display the worth of God

00:06:45.320 | by using money and sex and power

00:06:48.840 | the way God first designed for them to be used.

00:06:52.520 | It's easy to see, for example,

00:06:55.680 | how power can be a selfie-facing way

00:07:00.880 | of serving the cause of justice

00:07:04.020 | and mercy for the sake of others.

00:07:07.380 | Great good can be done by people

00:07:09.920 | who have much power or influence,

00:07:13.040 | if, it's a big if, they don't use the power

00:07:17.800 | to exalt themselves, but use the power

00:07:21.180 | to meet the needs of others and get out of the way

00:07:25.680 | and treat others better than they deserve.

00:07:30.440 | We wanna see Christ exalted in the gospel

00:07:33.360 | and people with power and influence can be a great help

00:07:38.280 | if they see the glory of God in the expenditure

00:07:43.280 | of their energy and their power.

00:07:45.200 | Or take money, it's easy to see how money can be used

00:07:49.400 | to show that we value God and His way and His kingdom

00:07:54.320 | more than we value the private pleasures

00:07:57.900 | that money can buy.

00:07:59.840 | We can pour our resources into gospel causes

00:08:04.200 | and we can choose to live a more simple wartime lifestyle

00:08:09.040 | so that we can maximize the advancement

00:08:13.040 | of God's saving purposes in the world.

00:08:15.800 | And that proactive use of money for Christ

00:08:19.680 | and His purposes is a wonderful way

00:08:22.360 | of putting His value on display.

00:08:26.120 | People will see how you use your money

00:08:28.960 | and they'll know what you really value.

00:08:30.840 | Christ and His purposes, not just a bigger house,

00:08:33.880 | a bigger car, a bigger boat,

00:08:35.400 | and another set of clothes, et cetera, et cetera.

00:08:38.800 | Now, with regard to sexuality,

00:08:41.240 | it may be a little more difficult to see how this works,

00:08:44.040 | how you positively glorify God

00:08:48.640 | in the pursuit of your sexuality.

00:08:50.760 | For single Christians, this will involve celebrating

00:08:56.720 | the goodness of human sexuality while expressing it

00:09:01.560 | only in the ways that God's Word has promised to bless.

00:09:06.560 | Manhood and womanhood don't go out of existence

00:09:09.720 | just because we're not married.

00:09:11.400 | They're there.

00:09:12.400 | And there are dynamics in the relationship

00:09:15.640 | between men and women, even before marriage,

00:09:18.440 | which put Christ on display positively.

00:09:23.200 | And then in marriage, it's even more pointed.

00:09:28.080 | One simple example would be that in the sexual union,

00:09:30.920 | in the actual act of sexual relations,

00:09:34.080 | both husband and wife, driven by the beauties of Christ,

00:09:38.520 | can seek each other's pleasure above their own

00:09:42.920 | and seek their own in the pleasure of the other

00:09:46.120 | so that both are displaying the beauties of Christ,

00:09:51.080 | even in the way they pursue their own sexual pleasures

00:09:55.200 | in the pleasures of another.

00:09:58.000 | And of course, it almost goes without saying,

00:10:01.120 | but perhaps not, that celebrating the covenant commitment

00:10:05.200 | of sexual faithfulness in marriage

00:10:07.880 | is a beautiful testimony to the goodness of God

00:10:11.400 | to a watching world.

00:10:13.800 | And you mentioned, Tony, at the end of your question,

00:10:16.080 | if I remember right, this has pretty serious implications

00:10:20.120 | for Christians who attempt to see how much sin

00:10:24.720 | they can get away with.

00:10:26.800 | Well, that's true.

00:10:28.480 | I call this minimalist Christianity,

00:10:32.040 | but I think it's not really Christianity.

00:10:36.000 | And the reason I say that is because Jesus defined

00:10:39.520 | his disciples not as those who did the minimum,

00:10:43.800 | but those who loved him more than anything.

00:10:46.800 | He said in Matthew 10, 37,

00:10:49.040 | "Whoever loves father or mother more than me

00:10:52.240 | is not worthy of me.

00:10:54.240 | Whoever loves son or daughter more than me

00:10:56.880 | is not worthy of me.

00:10:58.520 | And if it's true for mothers and fathers and sons

00:11:01.040 | and daughters, good grief,

00:11:02.640 | surely it's true for money and sex and power.

00:11:05.720 | Whoever loves money, whoever loves sex,

00:11:07.640 | whoever loves power more than me isn't worthy of me."

00:11:10.520 | You can't even be a Christian.

00:11:12.800 | It's not like there's this minimalist thing,

00:11:14.680 | everybody squeaks by it the last day.

00:11:16.680 | You can't even be a Christian

00:11:18.320 | if Jesus is not your greatest treasure.

00:11:23.320 | So yes, the stakes are very high.

00:11:26.840 | Money, sex, and power are God-given ways

00:11:30.520 | of showing where our heart is.

00:11:33.400 | - Absolutely brilliant.

00:11:35.360 | Absolutely frightening, but absolutely true.

00:11:37.760 | Thank you, Pastor John, for that survey.

00:11:39.840 | The new book we are talking about today

00:11:41.560 | is titled "Living in the Light, Money, Sex, and Power."

00:11:44.920 | It's a nice little hardcover available now

00:11:46.520 | on Amazon and downloadable free of charge

00:11:48.360 | at DesiringGod.org.

00:11:50.400 | I'm your host, Tony Ranke.

00:11:51.600 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast

00:11:53.480 | with author and longtime pastor, John Piper.

00:11:56.360 | We'll be back tomorrow.

00:11:57.520 | (upbeat music)

00:12:00.120 | (upbeat music)

00:12:02.720 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

How Do Money, Sex, and Power Expose the Real Me?

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